"Soldier" [ft. Santigold]

Go back to 2002, where you had the electro-funk promo first draft of N.E.R.D.'s In Search Of and Res' rock-tinged lost soul classic How I Do (co-written with Santi White) acting as exciting harbingers of a strange new hip hop/R&B/indie convergence. Now jump ahead to this collaboration and ask yourself: When and how did that convergence turn into a pile of smoldering wreckage? Could be the production on this one, a serviceable synthesized 2-Tone skank that switches gears to Playskool Bad Brains hardcore without popping in the clutch first. It's a weird shift in dynamics-- it cranks up the tempo without warning, but somehow that doesn't actually make the song sound more exciting.

But excise the clumsy mosh parts-- rendered ridiculous by a keyboard riff that can't decide whether it's imitating a guitar or a saxophone-- and you at least have a decentish new-wave-ska number that would've come close to fitting in on the better half of Santi's Stiffed album Burned Again. It's Pharrell's rapid-fire half-sequitur yammering that knocks things down a few notches, sounding twice as overanxiously busy as Santigold's unperturbedly badass vocals, while saying nothing: "You ask what I'm fighting/ You wanna know what I'm fighting/ My radio ain't exciting/ My TV ain't exciting." Oh, OK, another punk song about boredom.